Shading Till it's White
by Citrus Sunscreen
Summary: 05/05 Birthday ficc for Luffy. Can be seen as a slight continuation of Shades of White, Luffy contemplates. LuffyAce.


Title: Shading Till it's White

Rating: T

Warnings: Luffy/Ace, spoilers for ch574

Note: Can be taken as a semi-sequel to Shades of White. Luffy's bday ficc, Happy Birthday!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece

xxx

Shading Till it's White

_The hot air balloons decorated the cloud littered sky like splotches of paint, colourful and bright._

"_I wonder where they go" Luffy thought aloud_

_Ace snorted childishly "obviously anywhere away from Dadan." The older brother smiled brightly at the younger brother and both of the soon to be pirates ended up laughing, holding their stomachs._

"_Hey Luffy..." Ace began, looking up towards the hot air balloons "Happy Birthday"_

"_Thanks" Luffy grinned, enveloping his older brother in a tight hug before he too looked at the hot air balloons, and then he noticed that the when the flame in the hot air balloons got bigger, the balloon seems to glow like stars sometimes, flush red like a perfect orange flame. It was quite beautiful. Briefly, he wondered if death were that beautiful, but knew immediately that death only brought him pain, sorrow and great grief._

"_Don't leave me" Luffy stated as he took a firm grip on his brother's hand. He didn't need to look up to know that his brother was looking at him with puzzlement._

_It did not take long for the sun to die and for the moon to gloss over the sky, stars shimmering across the night sky like sequins. _

"_Make a wish, Luffy!" Ace smiled, handing the knife to cut the cake to his younger brother._

_Brimming with happiness, Luffy made his wish and blew out the candles, the knife cleanly cutting the cake which soon faded into the night._

_Later that night, the two brothers propped themselves on a bed, stomach filled with the creamy birthday cake. The light breeze brought in the smell of forget-me-not flowers form the window and the moon shone radiantly, its reflection on the well polished floorboards._

"_You know, Luffy" Ace started, his tone serious "I'm going to leave you one day"_

_Luffy could feel his ears ringing, his eyes glued to the pale moon, he didn't want to run over and look at what expression Ace was wearing. He could feel his eyes stinging at the thought of Ace's words. His brother wasn't, couldn't leave him._

"_You do understand right? Either you're going to leave me or I'm going to leave you."_

_The younger D brother whined and shut his eyes, he rolled over and wrapped his rubber arms tightly around his brother "Don't leave me behind, Ace"_

"_Luffy" Ace bit his lips "we're all going to float away like those hot air balloons"_

"_Ace...Ace!" Luffy kept chanting, not knowing whether it was in his head or if he were voicing it out as he held on tighter, scrunched his eyes tighter till all he saw was white "Please come back to me"_

xxx

Luffy opened his eyes and jerked upright, as though he had just awoken from a nightmare. His mind ran blank as he thought about how he could manipulate himself into even having such a dream, a dream where he had the mental capacity of an old fart in the him of his childhood. Luffy could feel a sudden gush of wind running towards him, the chill of the tears down his cheek made him shudder even more as the frosty breeze danced and pulled his charcoal black hair as it disappeared. He blinked and his eyes focused to where his surroundings, the faint scent of forget-me-not flowers filled his sense as his eyes came across that same marble headstone.

"Ace"

The Pirate King could feel himself tearing up again, and even though he was already half a century old he could not find himself to stop his flowing tears and for a while he worried over what his brother thought of such a pathetic looking Pirate King.

"Even though you're right here" He places one hand on the gravestone and one hand on his chest, above his heart "Why do I feel as though I'm spending my birthday alone again?"

Lying back with his head next to the tombstone, Luffy looked up towards the colourless sky before turning his head so that his eyes could read the name etched into the marble. And he wondered if this birthday was going to be his eternal slumber as his sight grew a shade whiter with every passing thought till the last thing on his mind was still his brother's frozen thankful yet regretful last smile.

Birthday wishes don't come true after all.


End file.
